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Cali hog down

My aunt smoked this bruiser this morning. First harvest. She's hooked. I have to give her credit though this was about her 15 th day in the field before she got a crack at one. Worth the weight I guess.

Kind of tough to make out but his tusk (if thats the right word) is 4 inches on the one side and snapped off on the other. And I guess, the eye, the one we can see, is completely scarred over, basically gone. He came in at 270 at the meat locker, field dressed.

Shot a few hogs at a friends place in Texas, only 2 were boars. (usually shoot meat hogs...smaller and usually sows). Every one of the boars had broken tusks and lots of scars on their snouts. My friend told me almost all the boars down there have broken tusks, maybe because of the rocky soil and the rooting in the dirt they do. Love to shoot hogs and they are really good eating!

Colorado Cowboy
Cowboy Action Shooter; Endowment Life Member-NRA
The Original Rocket Scientist-Retired
"My Father always considered a walk in the mountains as the equivalent of church going."
Aldous Huxley

The only hogs I've shot were in Texas and none over 225#. I butchered all except the first one myself. One thing for sure they have a lot less fat than a domestic, pen raised pig. The belly meat (which is where bacon comes from) was way too thin for bacon, so it went into sausage. I smoked the hams myself and made pork chops and spare ribs. The rest went into breakfast sausage. The meat was really great, not strong at all. That being said, I also ate some of my buddies hog that was shot in California near Paso Robles. It was a big boar, around 350#. Some of it was pretty strong. I've also heard if you want a meat pig, shoot one 200# or less and preferably a sow. Also as in all big game, how you take care of the animal after it is shot makes a difference. They are really not that easy to skin because of the fat. We cut the heads off and really let them bleed, gutted them and skinned them pretty quick. Cleaned up the meat and got them iced down. Frozen as soon as I could before leaving for home (I took a freezer and generator with me for transporting the meat back to Colorado).

Hoping to get back down there again the first week of April for hogs and Turkey.

Colorado Cowboy
Cowboy Action Shooter; Endowment Life Member-NRA
The Original Rocket Scientist-Retired
"My Father always considered a walk in the mountains as the equivalent of church going."
Aldous Huxley